Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The three of us squashed into the phonebox outside the pub and he put the 50p in the
coin slot and dialled a number that he had scribbled on a piece of paper. After a few rings
an English girl answered. It was very noisy and she sounded like she was in a bar.
'Hello, is that Jenny?' I said.
'It's Jenna. Who's that? Sorry it's very noisy here. I can hardly hear you.'
'I'm with a friend of yours called Rooballs. He has a message for you, that he wants me
to give you.'
'What's that? A message from who?'
'Rooballs. From Slovakia. He said you and he know each other?'
'Oh, yes. I remember Rooballs,' she said somewhat hesitantly. I was beginning to sense
that perhaps she didn't regard their relationship in the same way that Rooballs did.
'Good, well he's got a message that he wants me to translate for you,' I said, whilst
Rooballs hurriedly flicked through his phrasebook.
Rooballs pointed enthusiastically at a word that he had found. It said, 'potrestať, pok-
utovať, preťažiť'. Translation: 'to punish'.
I gave Rooballs a quizzical look, but he nodded his head excitedly as if to confirm he
definitely had the right word.
'Err, Jenna, he says 'to punish'. Does that mean anything to you?' By this point, Ben
had turned away and had his forehead squashed up against the glass of the phone box. I
could hear the muffled sobs of his laughter as he bit onto his fist.
'To punish? Punish what? I don't understand,' said Jenna.
Rooballs was busy searching the phrasebook for the next word, which would no doubt
make everything clear.
'Oh hang on, he's going to give me another word,' I said. Rooballs fumbled with the
book, but as he did the phone line went dead as Jenna hung up.
'I'm really sorry, mate. We ran out of credit,' I lied.
'We could call back?' I said, genuinely sad and confused that the only message he had
managed to pass on to his alleged girlfriend was 'to punish'. Rooballs shook his head and
pushed the door of the phonebox open.
'No more money,' he said dejectedly.
Back inside the pub I tried asking Rooballs what the remainder of his message was, but
he didn't seem to understand. His sadness was soon comforted when I taught him how to
flick a beer mat over with the back of his hand and catch it. He howled like a maniac.
'Right,lads,'saidRob,whohadbrokenawayfromtheotherfarmersandhadcomeover
to speak to us. 'My folks are having a barbeque down by the river tonight. I'm sure they'd
be happy for you to come along.'
'That's extremely kind of you, Rob. But we don't want to intrude at all,' said Ben.
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